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Bizerte (TA: Binzart), Bizerte Governorate (TA: Wilāyat Binzart; FR: Gouvernorat de Bizerte), Tunisia. March 2024.

Bizerte, the oldest city in Tunisia, is situated on the canal that links Lake Bizerte (FR: Lac de Bizerte) with the sea. Phoenicians settled here first in the 8th century B.C., and dug a channel linking the lake to the sea, thus producing one of the safest harbors in the Mediterranean. They named their town Hippo Zarytus. The Romans destroyed it in 146 B.C. to avenge for its part in the Punic Wars, only to rebuild it again as Hippo Diarrhytus a hundred years later. It was renamed Banzart by the Arabs, who captured the town in 678 AD. The Spanish occupied it between 1535-1570. Then the Ottomans took over, and it became an important base for the Muslim corsairs preying on Christian shipping in the Mediterranean.

Bizerte was in decline in the 1800's until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave the port renewed significance. The French transformed the town, completing a new canal in 1895 to handle modern steamships. They filled in the old shipping canal dug by the Carthaginians, building in its place the Ville Nouvelle (new town).

Under the French Protectorate, the town became a major naval base. During World War II, it was occupied by German troops and suffered considerable damage in the course of Allied bombardments. France held onto Bizerte and its strategic naval base after Tunisia became independent in 1956. More than 1000 Tunisians died in 1961 in fierce clashes that broke out after Habib Bourguiba demanded that the French leave, something they finally did in 1963.

Sources:
Lonely Planet Tunisia (2007).
Eyewitness Tunisia (2015).